Book Description
Two books bound together, from religious period of one of the most renowned and representative thinkers. Written for laymen, thus easy to understand, it is penetrating and brilliant as well. Illuminations of age-old religious questions from a pragmatic perspective, written in a luminous style.
Customer Reviews:
William James and Religion.......2007-06-19
Throughout his writings as a psycholgist and philosopher, William James was preoccupied with questions of religion. Put simply, James wrestled with questions about whether Darwin's theory of evolution and mechanistic, physiologically -based psychology (which he himself had done much to develop in his "Principles of Psychology) were inconsistent with a spiritual view of life. These questions came to the fore for James in the mid-1890s. In 1896, James wrote to a friend: "I am more interested in religion than in anything else, but with a strange shyness of closing my hand on any definite symbols that might be too restrictive. So, I cannot call myself a Christian, and indeed go with my father in not being able to tolerate the notion of a selective personal relation between God's creatures and God himself as something ultimate." (Quoted in Robert Richardson's "William James in the Maelstrom of American Modernism" at 364-365)
The book under review is a reasonably-priced edition of two works that James edited or wrote contemporaneously with the letter quoted above. In these works, James delved into religious questions and considered the consistency of a spiritual approach to life with a scientific outlook. The first "The Will to Believe and other Essays in Popular Philosophy" is a collection of nine essays written over a course of seventeen years -- from 1879 -- 1896 together with a Preface. The last of the essays is the controversial essay for which the collection is named, "The Will to Believe" which, James admitted, might better have been called "The Right to Believe." The second book, "Human Immortality: Two Supposed Objections to the Doctrine" consists of the text James delivered as the Ingersoll Lecture on Human Immortality at Harvard in 1897. James subsequently published this lecture as a short book in 1898. Both "The Will to Believe" and "Human Immortality" predate James's masterpiece in the study of religion, "The Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902).
The essays in "The Will to Believe" originated as lectures which James delivered to philosophical or theological clubs at various universities. The book is dedicated to James's friend, the philosopher Charles Peirce, to whom James says he owes "more incitement and help than I can express or repay." I was struck by how many of James's lasting themes had been developed in this relatively early book -- including his pluralism and what he calls in the Preface to the book his radical empiricism. The book illustrates James's efforts to weave together insights from psychology, philosophy, and religion without great regard for narrow lines of professional specialization.
The book tries to make a place for and show the importance to life of a belief in transcendent reality. James is far from endorsing any specific creed. In the Preface, James points out that his lectures had been addressed to sophisticated college audiences whose members would be troubled by the possibility of religious faith in an age of science and skepticism. James pointed out that if he had been addressing a different kind of audience -- his example is adherents of the Salvation Army -- the focus of his remarks would have been different, as James would have felt himself required to critique a too easy and too full belief as opposed to a skepticism about the possiblity of any belief. The thrust of the essays is thus to defend a right to believe, and it is important to remember that James is directing his remarks to the perceived needs of his hearers.
In making his argument, James discusses the nature and limitations of rationality and of what many people today term scientism -- the belief that only the physical sciences allow us to know what is true. The essays rely on James's psychology in showing the selective character of human awareness and perception. We see and focus upon reality in accordance with the questions we bring to it. James objects to the "monistic" view of reality which sees everything as part of a single interconnected fact or "block". He argues for pluralism and for attention to specific facts and detailed. Reality is not, for James, either an absolute block or a mere sand-heap of unconnected particulars. Rather, it exhibits loose interconnections and a spirit of, in words he would use again in his final essay of 1916, "ever not quite". Arguing against a mechanically deterministic universe, James argues for the possibility of chance using specific and homely examples. It is possible, James argues, that I could walk home down one street rather than another. It is possible, he claims, that a man who had brutally murdered his wife might have done something else, and that some other result would have been morally better than the killing. In understanding reality, James argues, we need to look forward rather than back, and use the energy and activity that may make our lives purposeful. If a person is caught on a cliff and needs to jump to safety, he will be more likely to do so if he believes he is able to do so. If he approaches the moment with trepidation, doubt and fear, fail he will. Thus, based upon a variety of considerations, James argues in these essays that it is rational for to adopt a believing attitude towards a transcendent source in reality and to take the ethical and metaphysical risks attendant upon such a belief. James does not always help himself in his choice of language, and his teaching has been subject to misunderstanding and ridicule. It is a difficult, challenging teaching which takes time to unpack and consider.
As its title suggests, the lecture on "Human Immortality" is more narrowly focused than "The Will to Believe", but its approach is much the same. James does not try to prove the existence or define the nature of an afterlife. He claims instead that his goal is simply to remove to alleged obstacles to a belief in immortality.
The larger part of the essay is devoted to the first obstacle which is based upon physiology and the functional nature of the mind. If the mind is simply a function of electrical-chemical reactions in the "gray matter" of the brain, what reason is there, James asks, for thinking that the mind survives the body. James's answer is based in part upon his reading of the German scientist and philosopher Gustav Fechner, whose work would also play an important role in James's later book, "A Pluralistic Universe." James distinguishes considering mind as a productive function of the brain from considering mind as a transmissive function. In both cases, thoughts in our everyday world are dependent upon neurology. But in the latter case, the universe may be viewed as itself spiritual in character, and that this character of the universe is transmitted through the brain to the individual person during life, and the character of the individual returns as part of this spirit upon death. I found this position intruiging because it seems to me to show that James' thought was greatly influenced by the pantheism or absolute idealism that he generally criticized severely in his writing. James is aware of this objection and tries to distinguish his thought from pantheism or idealism. I am not sure how well he succeeds. "Human Immortality" is a provocative essay, and it shows to me the seams of James' thinking between his commitment to pluralism and science on the one hand and spirituality on the other hand.
The other supposed objection to immortality that James considers is likewise based upon science. James argues that evolution has shown that human beings have developed from earlier forms of life, including earlier forms of humans. He also points to an expanded knowledge of the variety of human life and culture that, he claims, was unknown in biblical or medieval times. According to James, some critics might object to the teaching of human immortality because it would necessarily apply to too large a group. James replies to this alleged objection: "God, we can then say, has so inexhaustible a capacity for love that his call and need is for a literally endless accumulation of created lives. he can never faint or grow weary, as we should, under the increasing supply. His scale is infinite in all things. His sympathy can never know satiety or glut." James thus democraticizes and individualizes the possiblity of heaven. His approach here is similar to the approach he takes in his famous essay "On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings".
The two works in this book tie together James's work in psychology with his ongoing interests in religion and philosophy. The beauty of James's prose should not blind the reader to the complexity of James's thought. These works require careful reading. This is an excellent work with which to begin a reading of William James.
Robin Friedman
Epistemology, Pragmatism, "Making it easy"?.......2005-02-10
This review is mostly intended to address a common, and I think fair, criticism of The Will to Believe, that being his tendency to make it easy to allow people to believe, in areas of religious metaphysics (and this is an important line to draw), whatever they want. My take is based on a couple of readings of both The Will to Believe, and James' Essays in Radical Empiricism, and is therefore not laborious or scholarly. It is simply my impression as a reader.
The first part of this impression is that James was simply not addressing the right audience for the above criticism to hold much weight. He was lecturing to the philosophy club at a university well known for its theology program; or he was lecturing to the Young Men's Christian Association; or he was speaking to a number of Unitarian ministers. In most cases, his lectures were aimed at those who either already believed in God, or who might want to believe in God if he hasn't been killed by Reason. James repeatedly admits that most of his arguments are negative--that is, they don't provide evidence *for* God (or religion in general), they're meant simply to show that such belief is not necessarily negated philosophically, that there's *room* for religious belief.
Also, in order to understand James' approach, one has to remember that he was a psychologist ("Father of American psychology", in fact) and keep in mind his radical empiricist philosophy and its most obvious consequent, pragmatism. To James, there could be no absolute standard for "proving" or "refuting" such metaphysical ideas as religion is based around. Truth, according to the theory of pragmatism, is defined in terms of the idea's consequences, how well employing an idea fulfills what we want to get out of it (to simplify quite a lot). James certainly didn't think all beliefs were created equal; the proposition "boiling an egg makes cats rain from the sky" is verifiably false by any empirical standards, especially pragmatic ones. It's just that religious consequences are either currently or permanently not subject to any form of empirical testing. Those familiar with Alfred Korzybski's work should know what I mean very well.
James' arguments following this point are made as a genuine psychologist, focusing not on telling us what we should or shouldn't be believing and what grounds we should make them on (note the "shoulds"). His focus is on how people *will* actually make these kinds of decisions, what the actual conditions of people's belief are. As someone studying social and cognitive psychology right now, I can say that James' work is still relevant and insightful in this area. His conclusions were that most people are going to believe what meets their goals, and that this largely consists of feeling comfortable--for some, even the use of rigorous logic has no other purpose.
But it is also true that James never went as far as he could with his reasoning. He was content to help Christians stay Christian, and focus on using his ridiculously keen mind to make room for religion.
There is, however, a converse side to this that few people notice. He allows people to stay comfortable with their beliefs, but this should also point out that *those* wackos over there are believing their religion on exactly the same foundation as you. He allows you to believe whatever you want, but he also allows you to believe whatever you *don't* want. His philosophy taken to extremes could even undermine the view that any belief is entirely rational. If James had gone farther than his own comfort zone with his philosophy, he could have been a Zen master or a Dionysian figure to rival Nietzsche.
I suggest that questions of which beliefs are "True", and whether you should change yours or not, should be categorically divorced from the scope of this book. My impression is that James was not trying to answer these questions, and that a criticism based on his failure to do so doesn't make sense. This work is epistemological method, not metaphysical conclusion.
My point is ultimately that there's more in James' work than what he himself does with it. His essay on Hegel's philosophy shows an understanding of what Gregory Bateson would call "logical levels" several decades after James' death. His approach to philosophy, ethics, and religion was one of personal responsibility and a purposeful orientation. He's not going to tell you what to believe or what not to believe, except perhaps that you may as well pick whichever beliefs you get the most out of (note that this attitude does not exclude, or even discourage, rational, reasoned decision making). For this, my respect for James increases, as he understood that on a certain epistemological basis, there is no grounds for mandating "Truths" that can never have any solid empirical basis--the world has had enough people doing that, and we don't really need more.
The will- to - believe and religious experience .......2004-10-31
What I am writing here relates only to ' The Will- to - Believe'. I will say however that I believe all of James worth reading and considering , whether one agrees with him or not.
And this when I believe I am not alone in saying his greatest work is ' The Varieties of Religious Experience' and if I were to choose one James' work it would be that one.
I only want to make one point about ' the Will to Believe'. And that is I believe that James very rational approach to religious belief, his recommendation that we make a choice, his conception that the ' will' is at the heart of it misses most religious experience as I know it. My own sense that is that it is out of deep need, and often an inner compulsion that pewople choose the religious option. It is not a matter of ' will' at all. And the recommendation to make the ' will ' primary will only appeal to a small minority. So I think that his whole approach is somehow mistaken. Religious believers do not come into the world generally through will and decision of the kind he recommends.
Important reading in the Philosophy of Religion.......2003-12-18
I can't help but think that the two reviewers from Los Angeles have got it wrong. Their claim seems to be that James allows us to believe whatever we desire despite evidence to the contrary. This couldn't be more wrong. One of James' central ideas is that the rational elements of man can only take him so far, that they can't answer all of life's questions, but this is not to say that we ought to do away with rationality. James argues that we have the "right" to make certain decisions (ones that are not answerable by reason alone) on passional grounds (given certain criteria that he goes into in more detail than I can here). In other words, we're using reason as an important guide before taking a non-rational or passional leap. It is important to understand that this is not restricted to matters of religion and in this regard a bit of an example might be helpful: Is it appropriate to wait for incontrovertible proof that someone loves you before you act to extend yourself and love them in return? Of course not, and I think this is the type of thing James is getting at. So, to conclude, I think this is a truly inspiring read and that James would be as critical of adopting beliefs that have little or no rational basis as our previously mentioned reviewers. But hey, maybe I'm wrong too.
Want to be told it's okay to believe whatever you want?.......2002-04-08
Then look no further, you have found what you want (with a few trivial restrictions). James doesn't think you need to bother with things like evidence; as long as it is a "genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds", believe what you want!
What does it take to be a genuine option? Not much; James defines an hypothesis as "anything that may be proposed to our belief; and just as the electricians speak of live and dead wires, let us speak of any hypothesis as either live or dead. A live hypothesis is one which appeals as a real possibility to him to whom it is proposed."
He continues: "Next, let us call the decision between two hypotheses an option. Options may be of several kinds. They may be-1, living or dead; 2, forced or avoidable; 3, momentous or trivial; and for our purposes we may call an option a genuine option when it is of the forced, living, and momentous kind."
His thesis in his words:
"The thesis I defend is, briefly stated, this: Our passional nature not only lawfully may, but must, decide an option between propositions, whenever it is a genuine option that cannot by its nature be decided on intellectual grounds; for to say, under such circumstances, "Do not decide, but leave the question open," is itself a passional decision,-just like deciding yes or no,-and is attended with the same risk of losing the truth."
To be "living", all it takes is for you to be willing to think it possible, which will apply to just about anything you want to believe. To be "forced", just oppose it to rejecting what you want to believe (because you are "forced" to either believe what you want or you will not believe it; there is no other alternative). To be "momentous", it has to be important to you, which will apply to everything that really matters to you that you want to believe. Now, all you have to do is pick something for which you can have no evidence, and then you can believe it, according to James. So he is telling you, practically, believe whatever you want to believe, as long as it is beyond the reach of any evidence.
It should be no surprise that many people would welcome such garbage, since James appears to justify believing what you want. The trouble is, people believing what they want and ignoring evidence and reason has led to crusades, witch burning, the Inquisition, etc. (After all, what test can you have to determine whether or not God wants you to expel the 'infidels' from the 'holy land', or whether someone is a 'witch' or not, or whether someone is a 'heretic'? You'll never believe any such stuff if you base all of your beliefs upon evidence, and consequently you will not be as much of a danger to society.) Of course, James wrote after many of those activities, so we cannot blame him for what others did before he wrote his essay. However, following his advice, one could do all of the above. We can blame him for that.
James is very good at making people feel comfortable with their current prejudices, and for that, many praise him.
A rather basic demonstration of one of the problems of following James comes up as soon as one asks which set of beliefs one wants to believe. Should you be a Christian, a Jew, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Moslem, an agnostic, an atheist, or something else? Well, James is absolutely no help in finding out which of these might be true; he basically tells you to believe whichever one you want. Such advice is useless for discovering the truth about such important matters; he is telling everyone to just go along with whatever prejudices they prefer. And if your preferred prejudice leads to the torture and killing of 'infidels', well, James has nothing to say about that. He tells you to believe at your own risk what you will, but ignores the rather obvious risks to others. It is difficult to imagine a worse essay than "The Will to Believe".
If someone tries to defend James by claiming that you need to understand James' "pragmatism" to understand "The Will to Believe", you should realize that pragmatism is not mentioned in this essay, which was first given as a lecture, and is the first essay in the book THE WILL TO BELIEVE AND OTHER ESSAYS IN POPULAR PHILOSOPHY. James developed those ideas later (PRAGMATISM came out many years later). Furthermore, James mentions in "What Pragmatism Means" (in PRAGMATISM) that no one knew what pragmatism was at the time when "The Will to Believe" came out (he does not mention the essay by name; you have to compare the dates he mentions with the date of this essay). So James did not require an understanding of pragmatism to understand this essay.
There have been several books that have exposed James, but they have generally been expensive academic books that go out of print in no time at all, after practically no one has read them. James is around because he is easy to read, in an inexpensive edition, and tells people what they want to hear.
If you want to think, and if you really want to find out the truth about things rather than engage in wishful thinking, James gives extremely poor advice. The three-part essay "The Ethics of Belief" by William Kingdon Clifford is far better (it is often reprinted in philosophy anthologies in a severely edited form). But since Clifford advises people to think rather than simply believe what they want to believe, he is far less popular. I believe it was Bertrand Russell who said: "Many people would sooner die than think. In fact they do." Unfortunately, Russell was right about this. The popularity of James and the relative obscurity of Clifford is a rather telling proof of this.
Amazon.com
Become a fly on the wall at the Mind and Body Conference III, and eavesdrop on the world's leading Western physicians, psychologists, and meditation teachers as they discuss the mind-body connection with the Dalai Lama. East meets West in this important melding of contemporary research on the interrelationship between emotional states and physical well-being with the ancient Buddhist thinking on this obvious connection. Contributors include Daniel Goleman, Ph.D., author of Emotional Intelligence, Jon Kabat- Zinn, Ph.D., author of Wherever You Go, There You Are, and Francisco Varela, Ph.D., director of research at the National Center for Scientific Research, Paris.
Book Description
Can the mind heal the body? The Buddhist tradition says yesâand now that many Western scientists are beginning to agree, these discussions between His Holiness the Fourteenth Dalai Lama and a group of prominent physicians, psychologists, and meditation teachers could not be more timely. This book is a record of the Mind and Life Conference III, a meeting that took place in 1991 in Dharamsala, India, gathering together a unique assortment of Buddhist teachers and Western scholars to discuss such questions as: How are the brain, immune system, and emotions interconnected? What emotions are associated with enhanced well-being? How can death help us understand the nature of mind? How does self-esteem affect body and mind? How is morality related to physical and mental health? Can the mind heal the body?
Customer Reviews:
conversations with the dalai lama.......2006-11-06
This book is a series of conversations with the Dalai Lama on the topics of human sensitivities. parts of this book can be classified as excellent sna dothers the book drags and I wondered why I picked it up.
Transpersonal Psychology the Eastern Way.......1999-06-22
Dan Goleman has done it again. A highly readable book rooted in scientific research - just like his two books on Emotional Intelligence. Compared to other edited Mind and Life Conference books, this one describes the conversation in an extremely lively manner with explanations on Buddhist and scientific concepts presented as footnotes, and as a result making comprehension possible even with some abstract concepts unfamiliar to novice like me.
The enthusiasm shown by Dr. Goleman in the ability of mind over body can be found throughout the book (especially in the chapter presented by him where H.H. the Dalai Lama commented "You've just given me a lot of ammunition). This is probably due to his own knowledge and keen interest in the Eastern psychology and meditation.
Book Description
In Archive Fever, Jacques Derrida deftly guides us through an extended meditation on remembrance, religion, time, and technology—fruitfully occasioned by a deconstructive analysis of the notion of archiving. Intrigued by the evocative relationship between technologies of inscription and psychic processes, Derrida offers for the first time a major statement on the pervasive impact of electronic media, particularly e-mail, which threaten to transform the entire public and private space of humanity. Plying this rich material with characteristic virtuosity, Derrida constructs a synergistic reading of archives and archiving, both provocative and compelling.
"Judaic mythos, Freudian psychoanalysis, and e-mail all get fused into another staggeringly dense, brilliant slab of scholarship and suggestion."—The Guardian
"[Derrida] convincingly argues that, although the archive is a public entity, it nevertheless is the repository of the private and personal, including even intimate details."—Choice
"Beautifully written and clear."—Jeremy Barris, Philosophy in Review
"Translator Prenowitz has managed valiantly to bring into English a difficult but inspiring text that relies on Greek, German, and their translations into French."—Library Journal
Customer Reviews:
the fever that motivates this review..........2007-02-06
Anyone who keeps a blog or produces any type of content will find value in understanding the archive. Where does this desire, this passionate fever for remembering arise and what sustains it? The archive has now become an accessible tool that changes the nature of the "event". That is to say that the archive is a door to the future which is waiting to be uncovered or rearranged to create a new logic. It is receptive and passive in the way that its original authors are now capable of answering to the future. The archive isn't an ultimate pronouncement as hidden archives offer archeological evidence for counter-arguments that answer lingering or unasked questions. As personal archivists in our own lives we become aware of the way meaning can be interpreted through our methods of archivation. If you are an archivist and like to record things in order to remember or make permanent the past, you may find Derrida's theories interesting.
Book Description
This is the first book to offer Buddhist meditators a comprehensive and sympathetic examination of the differences between Asian and Western cultural and spiritual values. Harvey B. Aronson presents a constructive and practical assessment of common conflicts experienced by Westerners who look to Eastern spiritual traditions for guidance and supportâand find themselves confused or disappointed. Issues addressed include: Our cultural belief that anger should not be suppressed versus the Buddhist teaching to counter anger and hatred Our psychotherapists' advice that attachment is the basis for healthy personal development and supportive relationships versus the Buddhist condemnation of attachments as the source of suffering Our culture's emphasis on individuality versus the Asian emphasis on interdependence and fulfillment of duties, and the Buddhist teachings on no-self, or egolessness
Customer Reviews:
Eastern Philosophy and Western Psychology: Where the Twain Shall Meet.......2007-04-12
For more than half a century scholars and psychologists have been trying to see whether the practices and philosophy of Eastern religions and philosophical systems can be engaged with Western psychology. Some of the finest attempts at doing this have come from Ken Wilber, Roger Walsh and Frances Vaughan. To their number we should now add the name Harvey Aronson. I do not know him, but I read that he is a psychotherapist and Buddhist lecturer and this is one of the most comprehensive attempts to examine the basic differences and convergences between Asian and Western cultural and spiritual values.
This is far from being an arcane topic. Virtually every meditation teacher has been struck by the amount of psychological work that we need to do. Not just at the outset, but, as practice continues, many psychological issues tend to come up. Often people find themselves struggling with the apparent contradictions of being a Christian and needing therapy. Or alternatively of being a Western practitioner of Buddhism who enters therapy and then has to try and reconcile the apparent contradictions between a meditation practice that stresses the gradual dissolution of the ego and social inter-dependence, with therapeutic models that tend to emphasize ego-strengthening, autonomy and individuality.
The influential Chögyam Trungpa, founder of Naropa University in Boulder, talked a lot about meditation as therapy, but always said that meditation should be seen as an unconditional way of life rather than a form or medicine or healing.
The author's background enables him to expand on the subject in a way that only a few other writers have. In this book he focuses on the four central strands of the teachings of the Buddha: The Self, anger, love and attachment, and how these strands can illuminate and enrich Western psychological thought.
This is a well-written, clear and practical book that I recommend highly.
Much-needed exposition--cross-culture & cross-languaging.......2005-11-29
The author is psychotherapist, & meditation teacher with many famous associates/teachers in Theravada, Vajrayana, Dzogchen, & Bon (e. g. Surya Das, the IMS crew, Hopkins, Dudjom R., Norbu, Wangyal, Goenka et al), & Anne Klein's husband. He builds on the work of other therapist-Buddhists (Engler, Rubin, Epstein, Safran, Welwood) in explaining differences, risks, & potential cross-fertilization between these Eastern & Western approaches p. xiii: "Buddhist philosophy & meditation practice offer many tools for profound spiritual development, but they do not address all the psychological concerns of Westerners. Without more culturally appropriate interventions such as psychotherapy, even some advanced meditators continue to suffer from anxiety, depression, isolating narcissism, or numbed disengagement," p. xv: "When unacknowledged, such cultural gaps can cause teachers to misunderstand their students, who in turn suffer feelings of alienation & emotional injury," p. 2: "When we assimilate Buddhist practice into preexisting patterns, we merely introduce new content into old forms," & p. 65: "Confusion can occur when we are not mindful that we are taking concepts out of a Buddhist historical & linguistic context, translating them & depositing them into our own cultural-linguistic framework." As Tibetan/Pali/Sanskrit translator, he provides extensive discussion of how words, used differentially in English & Asian tongues, cause misunderstanding; thus, he focuses on 4 often confusing topics: self, anger, love, & attachment, providing examples of cultural & linguistic differences. Carefully choosing his words, he provides examples, stories, personal experiences, & quotes from both Buddhist masters & psychotherapists as well as meditation exercises (Tonglen, metta/maitri--see Pema Chödrön's works for more detail). He describes his aim as: p. 91: "cross-cultural & psychological reflections on Buddhist teachings," pointing out that p. 228 note 30: "Our way of understanding our experience is then very different from that of traditional Asian cultures." For example, p. 92: "Healthy anger, or assertion, differs from the intent to harm, which is the traditional Buddhist meaning of anger." p. 101: "Buddhist texts have no single morally neutral term for our abstract concept `emotions'." Also, p. 162: "It is an unfortunate & significant misreading of Buddhist literature to confuse the attitude of a Buddhist practitioner who embodies engaged nonattachment with that of a person who is defensively detached." He addresses how Buddhism will be absorbed into the West (reminiscent of Tsomo's & others' books on Western Buddhist Women), stating--p. 80: "We in the West will inevitably place Buddhist philosophical teachings within our psychological frame." p. 195: "While it is important to recognize the complex web of language, philosophy, social customs, & history that have both informed Buddhism & been informed by it in Asia, there is no way that we can-or should-seek to replicate all segments of that web when we incorporate Buddhist practice into our lives. From what I have seen, it is most effective to craft our own psycho-spiritual milieu, one that combines both traditional & modern approaches in addressing the broad array of concerns that we currently experience." p. 205: "We are seeing the evolution of an entirely new style of Buddhism in the West, influenced by cultural forces not prevalent in traditional Asia."
A definite must read!.......2005-07-19
I am a Buddhist and am working with a Buddhist therapist. He recommended I read this book for homework. This book hits upon many points and obstacles that I've encountered over the years and offers good insight into how to bridge traditional Buddhist teachings with western psychological understanding. Good stuff!
Psychotherapy at its best meets Buddhist Practice.......2005-02-12
Dr. Aronson has written a gem. His psychological insights are warming and wonderful. His bridge to Buddhist meditation practice is both unique and invaluable.
Rarely have I seen a psychotherapist who understands and communicates the quality of a successful psychotherapy so well. Coupling that gift with his ease in personal revelations, Dr. Aronson creates a warm holding environment, one that encourages the reader to feel equally comfortable and at ease in looking at his or her own vulnerable feelings. The ability to communicate both the value of a good psychotherapy and to capture its warm essence is very rare.
Dr. Aronson has another gift. As a long-time Buddhist practitioner and professor, he possesses a deep personal knowledge of how the practice is used, and misused, by Westerners. Dr. Aronson captures this by providing a very interesting cross-cultural perspective, picking up strengths and weaknesses as Buddhism has been both transplanted and translated from Asia to the West. He has a unique and invaluable perspective on the way Buddhist teachings are recruited to one's individual neurosis.
Dr. Aronson retranslates Buddhist proscriptions against "anger." He believes the Asian teachers were not admonishing one to avoid an emotional state, but rather to avoid destructive actions. Aronson believes that angry feelings are often helpful, or even necessary for some people to grow, and to become able have an effective meditation practice. This opinion is consistent with his gloss that the advice to avoid anger should be read as avoiding destructive action. This is so because if a person was the victim of destructive actions, or a longer destructive upbringing, hiding or disavowing those destructive actions perpetrated against the person would actually be to collude with one or more aggressors, and that can only done at a high personal cost. The cost could take many forms, including disengaging with the world, having symptoms of depression or guilt, substance abuse, chronic relational problems, etc. In this discussion, we see Aronson capturing therapy at its best.
My only criticism of this book is that its title didn't offer a way to easily capture the imagination of the psychotherapeutic world, as I think psychotherapists, and people interesting in psychotherapy are a natural audience.
I appreciate this wonderful book and encourage others to enjoy fascinating and stimulating book.
Mark Siegert, Ph.D.
Clinical Psychologist, Psychoanalyst
Deep Synergism.......2004-11-14
I found this book remarkable; it explores the crucial need to pursue new approaches to understand mental distress and to find ways to overcome such suffering.
Dr. Aronson shares with us the gift of his knowledge, experience, and deep compassion helping others. He presents us with a profound and comprehensive portrayal of the differences, similarities and ultimately synergism between Eastern approaches to 'taming' of the mind and Western approaches of 'therapy' of the mind.
In this detailed, nuanced and penetrating analysis he patiently teaches how exploring both of these traditions - Buddhism and Psychotherapy- can help us become aware of and overcome obstacles to our personal and spiritual growth that pursuing only one approach, without the assistance of the other, may lead us to feel mired in the inescapable quicksand of seeming insurmountable barriers.
Dr. Aronson shares tender personal reflections on his own struggles with suffering and how he was able to overcome these obstacles to his personal growth by pursuing both Buddhist teachings and psychotherapy. His discussion about the way in which both of these practices enabled him to expand and enhance his own spiritual growth and his abilities to work in helping others is both courageous and inspiring.
Philip J. Hauptman MD
Psychiatrist
NYC, NY
Average customer rating:
- A jewel
- Sloth as the worst?
- this book was a wonderful documentry of the sins
- beautiful eye-opener in radiant truth
- Fantastic book for those who study their character.
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The Seven Deadly Sins: Jewish, Christian, and Classical Reflections on Human Psychology
Solomon Schimmel
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Similar Items:
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Seven Deadly Sins Today
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Gluttony: The Seven Deadly Sins
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Lust: The Seven Deadly Sins
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Greed: The Seven Deadly Sins
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Sloth: The Seven Deadly Sins
ASIN: 0195119452 |
Book Description
All of us are engaged in a personal, ongoing battle with sin and vice. The seven deadly sins--lust, greed, envy, anger, pride, gluttony, and sloth--are our main antagonists in this struggle. They are primary causes of unhappiness and immorality, and because of their pervasive nature, have been of perennial interest to religious thinkers, philosophers, dramatists, and poets. Although our anger doesn't make most of us murderers, our lust doesn't make most of us rapists, and our greed and envy don't make most of us outright criminals, they, together with gluttony, arrogance, and sloth, often make us, and those who have to live with us, miserable. One need only read the daily paper to see that these seven sins are alive and well, deadlier than ever, spawning violence and suffering, illness and anxiety, loss of meaning and depression. An arrogant yuppie considers suicide after losing his job on Wall Street, which had been the fragile basis of his false pride. A distinguished senator and a prominent judge destroy their careers and wound their female victims with their lust. Millions of men and women, distraught about their body image, subject themselves to liposuction, breast and hair implants because of their gluttony or vanity. People at the pinnacle of economic power fall into the abyss of prison because they could not control their avarice. In The Seven Deadly Sins, Solomon Schimmel explains why psychology must incorporate many of the ethical and spiritual values of religion and moral philosophy if it is to effectively address the emotional problems faced by modern men and women, be they believers or agnostics. Drawing on the psychological insights of the Bible, Aristotle, Maimonides, Aquinas, and Shakespeare, among others, he shows how all of us can learn from them about the relationship between virtue and psychological well-being and vice and emotional distress. This insightful and fascinating work guides us to master our passions rather than be enslaved by them so that we can become more humane and build a happier, caring society.
Customer Reviews:
A jewel.......2004-12-28
This is a beautiful book written by a man extremely well educated in religion, psychology, ethics, and philosophy. The wonder of the book is how the author manages to both contrast and integrate the different schools of thought. The main premise is that secularism has not provided adequate replacements for the ethical (and other) religious teachings, and that it should do so. His suggestions is that modern psychology should incorporate the wisdom of the saints and philosophers, which is has not so far done. His discussions go to the heart of the matter, even dealing with issues of free will versus determinism. The discussion is often very concrete with stories of specific persons and their problems. A fascinating integration of ancient and modern thought. Schimmel was propetically named by his parents, as was the biblical Solomon, he is very wise man. This is a great book to read and re-read for anyone seeking to heal themselves and those around them.
Sloth as the worst?.......2002-11-09
Sin is a dirty word in most modern psychotherapy. How refreshing it is to find a book that tries to revitalize the notion of sin while tempering it with modern thinking. But make no mistake: this is no religious rant, no fundamentalist tract. Far from it; here is a wise, cautious attempt to marry modern psychotherapy with traditional wisdom. The author's rather conservative (or at least traditional) Judaism shows on every page, but he is still a thoughtful and tolerant writer.
The book is laid out in a very plain fashion: an introduction ("The Persistence of Sin"), chapters for each of the seven sins, then a conclusion ("Sin and Responsibility"). There are abundant references to Chaucer, to Shakespeare, to lesser-known Jewish and Islamic thinkers of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The sin # 1 chapter, Pride, gives us the Satan of Milton's PARADISE LOST as the prime example. Sin # 2, Envy, has Shakespeare's Iago; the third chapter, on Anger, has King Lear's opening scene featured (see pp. 106-107), and discusses the American mania for lawsuits as a means of vengeance. The Lust chapter is the most delicate one in the book; Schimmel here has to temper modern notions of healthy sexual self-expression against the dangers of lechery and overindulgence. This chapter fades nicely into Sin # 5, Gluttony, which we moderns might call Overindulgence - of food, sex, or drink (or even drugs, but Schimmel oddly doesn't go there). The wisdom of the ages has no consensus on which sin is the most deadly, but Schimmel's placing of Greed as the sequential penultimate Sin seems far from arbitrary. Think of the obsession in the modern West with what the Canadian thinker and politician Eric Kierans recently called the "accumulation" mania, a sickness summed up by the 1990s bumper-sticker, "he who has the most toys when he dies, wins."
Onto Schimmel's seventh and final sin: Sloth. Here is the book's most troubling and troublesome chapter. Sloth here is only minimally what we usually associate with the word: laziness, laying-about, being a couch-potato. Far more important is Schimmel's attachment of Sloth to what we might call "existential despair." Sloth is not only physical, but intellectual. If we lay back, hide, retreat, take cover because life is just too overwhelming, then we are guilty of Sloth. It seems to me that Schimmel is here (and only here) a bit cruel to those of us who may have biochemical imbalances and severe mood swings. But this chapter seems to urge us to carry on even if we are clinically depressed and intellectually despairing. It is odd how Schimmel, elsewhere in this book so adept at linking the ancient wisdom to the modern, can go on about Job (194-95) but never mention someone like Samuel Beckett.
Here's an activity for a serious dinner-party or an intelligent classroom: compare the sequence of the seven sins in this book's chapters with the progression of the seven in the late 1990s movie SEVEN (with Brad Pitt as Bad Cop, Morgan Freeman as Good Cop, Kevin Spacey as psychopath villain).
this book was a wonderful documentry of the sins.......1999-01-12
I have read many such books and I find this one to be the most informitive and well-written
beautiful eye-opener in radiant truth.......1998-09-18
Anyone who wonders what he or she is about today will find great directives in this book. It is so full of old cultures and tradition, the genuine feel of which we seem to lack to-day in our hasteful, almost superficial world. From viewpoints of ancient times comes a timeless voice, rich in human experience and wisdom. It is the great accomplishment that ancient knowledge has been made accessible in a modern, somewhat therapeutic way. The book is clear, honest and compassionate, and renders a good insight in what sin is precisely, and our human ability to make good and beautify our souls and existence. To everyone withdrawing once in a while to be with themselves: read this book!
Fantastic book for those who study their character........1998-01-01
Schimmel defines the sin and then describes the results of this defect of character. Examining each sin from a classic Greek, Jewish and Christian perspective Schimmel then recommends secular pschological remedies. This, I feel, is the books only failing. I must say I loved the book and everyone I have loaned my copy to has loved it also. I treasure my copy and have gained insight into my character by studying it's every word.
Book Description
Dr. Dan and Kate Montgomery's master work on integrating psychology and theology has practical application in the fields of pastoral ministry, pastoral theology, pastoral counseling, psychology of religion, clinical counseling, and personality theory. The book has received praise from professors at Yale Divinity School, Regent College, Fuller Seminary, Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary, Gordon-Conwell Seminary, and Dallas Theological Seminary. Dr. Ray Anderson, Senior Professor of Theology and Ministry at Fuller Seminary, calls the book "stunning and stimulating," and recommends it as required reading for integration courses at Fuller.
Customer Reviews:
Don't Miss Out.......2006-09-05
Dr. Dan and Kate Montgomery plant their feet firmly in the soil of Trinitarian Christianity and out comes a model that is, from a theological viewpoint, rock solid. They show Jesus in humanity without compromising an ounce of Deity. How often have we told others to be 'like Jesus', but outside of praying, witnessing, fellowshipping, and reading more Scripture we felt a little clueless on how to lead people? Compass Psychotheology brings it home. If you want to grow and teach others to do the same, don't go another day without this book! Raymond D. Anderson, Ph.D., M.Th, LPCC, LADAC
Required reading at Fuller Theological Seminary.......2006-09-04
Dr. Dan and Kate Montgomery do not attempt to integrate psychology and theology by beginning with a state of disintegration and then attempting to create a synthesis or a state of collaboration between the two disciplines. Rather, Compass Psychotheology begins with a model of human wholism based on the ontological intimacy that God intended by endowing humans with personal being that reflects the divine image. In their compass model, a comprehensive view of personality disorders, both psychological and spiritual, are shown to have a common source in defection from an original state of wholeness. Spiritual growth and psychological health result from a rhythm of being and becoming. This is a stunning and stimulating contribution to the literature on integration. I recommend it as required reading for integration courses here at Fuller Seminary. -- Ray S. Anderson, Ph.D., Senior Professor of Theology and Ministry.
An innovative approach to Christian psychology.......2006-08-28
Dr. Montgomery's new book explaining his Compass Theory is one of the only books I've read that gives both sound pyschological theory with deeply rooted faith growth equal ground. This book doesn't just attempt to layer piety over problems, but helps the reader (and the counselor) see how spiritual and emotional problems are intricately entwined. Striking a useful balance between theory and practicality, this book is well worth a read if you want to not just understand your behavior and the behavior of those around you, but develop methods that actually create life-long change.
Book Description
Since its publication in 1966, The Triumph of the Therapeutic has been hailed as a work of genuine brilliance, one of those books whose insights uncannily anticipate cultural developments and whose richness of argumentation reorients entire fields of inquiry. This special fortieth-anniversary edition of Philip Rieff’s masterpiece, the first volume in ISI Books’ new Background series, includes an introduction by Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn and essays on the text by historians Eugene McCarraher and Wilfred McClay and philosopher Stephen Gardner.
Customer Reviews:
have we organized our indifference yet?.......2007-02-10
Near then end of THE TRIUMPH OF THE THERAPEUTIC / USES OF FAITH AFTER FREUD (1966) by Philip Rieff, chapter 8 examines "various uses of faith in a culture populated increasingly by psychological men. Each [Freud, Reich, and Jung] attacked the connection between morality and a culture about which they expressed strong disapprovals." (p. 232). "The process by which a culture changes at its profoundest level may be traced in the shifting balance of controls and releases which constitute a system of moral demands." (p. 233).
Ambivalence
Those who think they can win any argument by defining the terms of the discussion as they wish must imagine "Competing symbolisms gather support in competing elites; they jostle each other for priority of place as the organizers of the next phase in the psychohistorical process." (p. 234). "In all cultures before our own, the competing symbols took the language of faith. A language of faith is always revelatory, communicating through some mouthpiece of the god-term a system of interdicts--a pattern of `thou shalt nots,' or taboos. The language of science is not revelatory but analytic; for this reason, the scientist can never claim that his own terms have a prophetic function. His work is non-moral, that is, without interdictory purpose." (p. 234).
"A language of hypothesis is culturally neutral. Commitment to hypothesis is made to be abandonable. The scientific psychologist, as clinician, aspires to be neither interdictory or counter-interdictory. Because the clinical attitude aspires to moral neutrality, its therapeutic effect is culturally dubious. ... No culture has yet produced a third type of symbolic--one that would embrace that historical contradiction in terms: a `scientific culture.' If, and only if, a neutralist symbolic becomes operative, may we speak of a scientific culture." (p. 235)
... "Some fresh imbalance is required before the succeeding system of culture can be born, bringing into being a new symbolic of expectations, and, moreover, institutions appropriately organized to enact those expectations, translating the high symbolic into rules of social conduct." (p. 236).
... "Thus even the most stable moral demand systems are inherently liable to change. The primary process of cultural change refers to shifting jurisdictions over categories of social action by controlling and remissive symbolisms of communal and individual purposes." (p. 237).
... "With respect to culture, it is still unclear whether the social sciences will produce control devices, as Comte hoped, or in what sense they may help create and install fresh convictions of communal purpose." (p. 237).
... "Because Freud's doctrine was anti-communal, it could be used as a theoretical basis for elaborating a strategy of self-realization for the therapeutic. Americans, in particular, have managed to use the Freudian doctrine in ways more remissive than he intended, as a counter-authority against any fresh access of communal purpose." (p.238).
... "No one knows the internal voice, or external look, of the new devices of control and release that will succeed our failing ones. That even Freud expected them indicates the hold of the inherited configuration of culture over even the most radically inquiring minds." (p. 238).
... "With their secondary needs automatically satisfied, men may no longer need to have something in common, as an end, to love. The organization of indifference may well succeed the organization of love, producing a culture at lower cost to individual energies. Indeed, by this reorganization the interior life would cease to press its sickening claim to superiority." (p. 239).
"The strange new lesson we have begun to learn in our time is how not to pay the high personal costs of social organization. ... The present swing in the direction of release may not be orbital but more extended and historically more permanent, based on the automaticity and ease with which an infinity of created needs can now be satisfied." (p. 239).
... "But the modern cultural revolution has built into itself a unique prophylaxis: it is deliberately not in the name of any new order of communal purpose that it is taking place. On the contrary, this revolution is being fought for a permanent disestablishment of any deeply internalized moral demands, in a world which can guarantee a plenitude produced without reference to the rigid maintenance of any particular interdictory (and counter-interdictory) system. This autonomy has been achieved by Western man from common and compelling mobilizations of motive. Stabilizing the present polytheism of values, there is the historic deconversion experience of the therapeutic, proposing an infinity of means transformed into their own ends." (pp. 239-240).
"Cultural revolution is usually distinguishable from political revolution, which may assault the social order and leave the moral demand system fundamentally unaltered. Our cultural revolution has been made from the top, rather than from the bottom. It is anti-political, a revolution of the rich by which they have lowered the pressure of inherited communal purpose upon themselves." (p. 240).
"Our revolution is more Freudian than Marxist, more analytic than polemic, more cultural than social. There is no reason why, as the reluctant leader of moral revolutionaries, Freud should have threatened the social order. ... Culture, not the social order, takes the point of Freud's analytic attack, as it does of Jung's reconstructions in terms of religious psychology. Attacking the culture, such insights as the subjects of this volume propose could be adapted as safeguards against all inherited therapies of commitment. For the culturally conservative enemy of the ascetic, enemy of his own needs, there has been substituted the image of the needy person, permanently engaged in the task of achieving a gorgeous variety of satisfactions." (p. 241).
... "One main lesson is being more and more widely learned: that all compelling symbols are dangerous, threatening the combined comfort of things as they are. ... All binding engagements to communal purpose may be considered, in the wisdom of therapeutic doctrines, too extreme. Precisely this and no other extreme position is stigmatized as a neurotic approach to paroxysms of demand for a more fundamental revolutionary dogma. It is in this sense that the contemporary moral revolution is anti-political; more precisely, it serves the purpose of the present anti-politics, representing a calm and profoundly reasonable revolt of the private man against all doctrinal traditions urging the salvation of self through identification with the purposes of community." (pp. 242-243).
... "Crowded more and more together, we are learning to live more distantly from one another, in strategically varied and numerous contacts, rather than in the oppressive warmth of family and a few friends." (p. 243).
The ties that bind.......2005-08-07
In this brilliant work Philip Rieff expands on his first book on Freud, The Mind Of The Moralist. He looks at the moral aspects of the writings of Freud, Carl Jung, Wilhelm Reich and DH Lawrence, in which he sees the birth of Psychological Man and the victory of relativism.
He observes that psychoanalysis was instrumental in breaking down standards of morality and undermining religion. But in the 19th century, rationalism had already weakened Christianity in its heartland. The negative trends that replaced it contain no positive symbolism and above all, require no commitment.
Rieff does not deny the manifest genius of these authors and thinkers, but rejects their respective faiths of the inner God, hedonism and impulse. Defining faith as "the compulsive dynamic of culture," Rieff does not think that any of the aforementioned substitutes has what it takes to serve as integrating factor for Western culture.
He considers the negation of concepts like good and evil as the base upon which personality is formed nowadays. The therapeutic society provides an easy, feelgood or "touchy-feely" substitute that leads to utter shamelessness. I'm not so sure about his criticism of Jung's idea of the immanence of God, but it cannot be denied that this often leads to New Age drivel and fake spirituality.
The Triumph Of The Therapeutic is a brilliant study of faith and culture and the ties between them, whether one always agrees with the author or not. The writing style is elegant with many a bon mot and memorable turn of phrase.
Book Description
The Essence of Jung's Psychology and Tibetan Buddhism illuminates two very different yet remarkably similar traditions. Radmila Moacanin touches on many of their major ideas: the collective unconscious and karma, archetypes and deities, the analyst and the spiritual friend, and mandalas. Within Tibetan Buddhism she focuses on tantra and relates its emphasis on spiritual transformation, also a major concern of Jung. This expanded edition includes new material on the integration of the two traditions, and the importance of these paths of the heart in today's unsteady world.
Customer Reviews:
Good start; makes valid points; opens the door.......2005-05-22
When originally published in 1986, it was groundbreaking; it's still worth reading, though there are similar books now (Daniel Meckel & Robert Moore's "Self Liberation: The Jung-Buddhist Dialogue" & others on Western Psychology & Buddhism [See my draft listmania]). Here the author effectively demonstrates many similarities/parallels between Jung's works & Vajrayana, but not Mahamudra/Dzogchen (MM/Dz). She provides an introduction to each system-with interesting observations-
p. 6: quoting Nancy Wilson Ross, Buddhism: A Way of Life and Thought (NY: Vintage, 1981) p. 44, "It has been said that [Hinayana] emphasizes the humanity of the Buddha; Mahayana emphasizes the Buddha nature of humanity."
p. 17: "According to one author [S. B. Dasgupta, An Introduction to Tantric Buddhism, University of Calcutta, 1974, p. 54] there was no one particular person who introduced tantra into Buddhism at any particular time, but rather that it has been gradually incorporated in the course of centuries. The same author maintains that there are no fundamental differences between Hindu and Buddhist tantras [p. 145]." Others disagree, stating "it was crystallized into a definitive form by the 3rd century" CE & that there are fundamental differences especially in the definition of yab-yum.
p. 21: "On the path toward freedom any passion and desire must be utilized and transformed into wisdom. This is a very basic principle of any Tantric practice. In this respect it is similar to homeopathy, working on the principle that like cures like. The very same element that causes a disease may if applied in a proper dose act as an antidote and a cure."
She then compares the methodologies, archetypal symbols, similarities/differences including--Tara, Vajrayogini vs. Jung's Anima, Book of the Dead, bliss vs. suffering, attachment, cultural differences, dangers, Buddhahood vs. individuation, compassion, & synchronicity. For example, she claims that Tibetans coming west was not coincidence but a synchronistic event. I agree with the vast majority of her assertions. However, since p. 102: "Jung claims he does not make philosophical or metaphysical statements and that his work is based on empirical evidence only," it seems likely that Jung's limitations of individuation vs. Buddhahood were due to his lack of empirical observation of a Buddha. So, this distinction may be illusory. Further, despite his Thinker orientation, Jung's lack of compassion may be overstated considering his guidance to therapists regarding empathy during individual dyadic relationships with clients vs. the application of theory. Also, many (e.g. Bhikshuni Lekshe Tsomo) have commented upon the effects on Buddhism in new countries-now starting to manifest in the West. Some psychological differences were shown in Bhikshuni Thubten Chodron's "Blossoms of the Dharma"- p. 144: "Feelings of low self-esteem and inadequacy are prevalent in Westerners...Tibetans do not have words in their language for low self-esteem or guilt, so Westerners' problems with these feelings are not readily comprehensible to them. His Holiness had difficulty understanding how someone could not like himself. He looked around this room of educated, successful people and asked, `Who feels low self-esteem?' Everyone looked at each other and replied, `We all do.' His Holiness was shocked." Also, Bhikshuni Wendy Finster (a clinical psychologist from Australia) p. 158 "Only enlightened persons are totally mentally healthy." She speaks to sangha dangers, responsibilities, & cultural differences and says: p. 166: [not meeting one's expectations] "causes us to judge ourselves harshly and feel guilty, and as a result our self-esteem plummets. This surprises our Asian teachers; they do not realize the level of self-criticism and self-hatred that can arise in individuals raised in our culture." This view does not conflict with Jung's warning about going native with Eastern religions. Nevertheless, Moacanin argues convincingly for adoption from the East: pp. 104-5: "Eastern symbols are fresh to the Western mind and therefore possess a greater capacity to inspire and stimulate the imagination, while unfortunately for many in the West our symbols have become ossified and thus have lost their intrinsic meaning." Since she states p. 47: "Concepts are instruments of protection from experience" which reflects deep similarities in the 2 systems (& MM/Dz), it remains to be seen how the 2 will interact in the future. Still, archetypal symbols are universal. Thus, the 4-sided deity mandalas of Vajrayana and their Mt. Meru surrounded by 4 continents do not significantly differ from John Weir Perry's "Lord of the 4 Quarters."
Prescription for the 21st Century.......2003-02-17
Wisdom Publications has issued a new 2003 edition of the 1986 classic by Radmila Moacanin. In 22 pages, she provides with exquisite clarity the most concise summary available of Hinayana, Mahayana, and Vajrayana Buddhism. This compelling overview will provide both a novice and an experienced practicioner with a few insights, undoubtedly due to the depth of the author's insight. Tying the essence of Vajrayana Buddism to Jungian psychology has always been, in my view, the best way to articulate the experience of Tibetan diety practice to the Western mind. The Tibetan tankas used for meditative practice are not only beautiful works of art. They are powerful devices that can provide a window into an alternative reality. The encounter with a deity (or with a Jungian archtype) results in a stronger force which compels the practitioner to take another path. One no longer chooses a goal, it chooses him or her. The goal becomes the manifestation in practical reality of one's higher Self. Experienced initially as something "other," the Self embodied as the diety or archtype, shatters the conventional ego-centric view of the world and liberates the mind from self-imposed imprisonment.
The encounter with unconscious forces can be risky. Many Western teachers have recommended depth psychology and a thorough analysis as a prerequisite to the journey. At a minimum, it would help everyone to gain familiarity with unconscious contents and how to deal with them. Failing that, encountering deep feelings unexpectedly in the experience of daily life, as everyone does at one time or another, can be a disorienting experience. Fear and uncertainty can lead to negative actions or support of irrational idealism leading to failure or destruction of life and relationships, while positive acceptance can lead to transformation, caring, love, and reconciliation. Jungian psychology can prepare one for deity meditation and the rapid path of Vajrayana Buddhism, help smooth out the bumps in the road along the way, and train one for the inevitable life-changing forces encountered at the most unexpected times. Jung's vision is timeless:
"Every individual needs revolution, inner division, overthrow of the existing order, and renewal, but not by forcing them on his (or her) neighbours under the hypocritical cloak of Christian (or other religious) love or the sense of social responsibility or any of the other beautiful euphemisms for unconcious urges to personal (or collective) power. Individual self-reflection, return of the individual to the ground of human nature, to his (or her) own deepest being with its individual and social destiny - here is the beginning of a cure for that blindness which reigns at the present hour." [Jung. Two Essays on Analytical Psychology. p. 5.]
Book Description
Argues for a renewed vision of the cosmos based on the centrality of the human encounter with the sacred.
Customer Reviews:
Grab a highlighter & some paper & a pen.......2007-02-01
This book of Cheetham's is another success! It is one not to be rushed through, I find myself wanting to jot down many notes & highlight almost everything. Get the book, lock yourself at home for a weekend & emerse yourself in it...you won't be sorry.
Beautiful!.......2006-02-21
The works of Tom Cheetham are as world-changing as they are needed. In his first book, "The World Turned Inside Out", he provides the reader with an introductory text to the works of Henry Corbin. In this book - Green Man, Earth Angel- he "explores the central role of imagination for understanding the place of humans in the cosmos". He embarks on these explorations by examining the role of language, the problems of scientific rationalism and through an examination of the worldview of the Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
As Dr. Robert Sardello in the foreword says:
"This book requires slow reading, for as you read these living words you are undergoing a transformation. At the end of this reading, the world will not be the same".
Do your Self a favor and read this book!!!.......2006-01-03
YEAH!!!Another book from Tom Cheetham that speaks to the Soul...Clarity...well Re-Searched...WE LOVE IT!!!
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Freud and Philosophy: An Essay on Interpretation (The Terry Lectures Series)
Paul Ricoeur
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